Post navigation

The Real Reason Why Health Care is So Expensive

In the early evening of the Fourth of July, my wife was cutting cilantro for a salad we were bringing to a friend’s party. Distracted by yelling children, she accidentally cut her left index finger with the knife. Yikes!

It was a fairly deep cut across a nail, bleeding profusely, and we all agreed she should have it checked out.

I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Naturally, it being after 5:00 p.m., our regular family doctor’s office was closed tighter than a drum.

We decided that, rather than go to the Emergency Room – where it would cost us an arm and a leg – we would try to go to the “Urgent Care” clinic instead. As a result, we dropped out kids off at the party and drove the five miles to the “Urgent Care” clinic. But it, too, was closed tight with an office sign that proclaimed their office hours from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

At this point, we had no choice: So we drove over to our local community hospital emergency room… where, I must say, we received wonderful care.

First, the admitting staff did their efficient admission procedure on us. Then, a triage nurse of some kind examined my wife’s wound and agreed that, yes, it would be a good idea to have a doctor check it out.

Another nurse took us back into a cubicle where she was propped up on a hospital bed. Her blood pressure and temperature were taken… and some routine medical history questions were asked by a third nurse.

We sat there for about 45 minutes until a young lady doctor strolled in. She was a marvelous doctor, warm, personable, seemingly very competent. She and my wife chatted about their gardens, growing tomatoes and what-not. The doctor decreed that the cut didn’t need and couldn’t accommodate a stitch, with the nail and all. As a result, she briefly cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and then applied some “dermabond,” a SuperGlue-like substance to seal the wound. She also recommended that my wife get a tetanus booster. Yet another nurse came in to wrap the cut finger in a bandage.

We were in the hospital for nearly two hours but the actual treatment took literally five minutes (clean the wound, applying “Dermabond”).

When it was all done, a “billing agent” appeared and demanded further identification for billing (social security number, name of employer, etc.)… which we provided.

Two weeks later, the bill arrived: The hospital billed Anthem Blue Cross $1,659.74. Blue Cross disallowed $906.75 of that, leaving us to pay (because of our high deductible) $753. That works out to about $150 per minute of actual treatment.

And that’s not counting the doctor. She’s an independent contractor and her costs are extra. Her bill was for $342 — $226 for “surgery” and $116 for “emergency service.” Anthem Blue Cross said we had to pay $235.92 and they disallowed $106.08.

Thus, the total cost for fixing a cut finger was $988.92.

This is why medicine is bankrupting America. This was just the cost of fixing a cut finger. Imagine the bloat and built-in waste of, say, a heart bypass operation.

We didn’t need six different nurses… a hospital bed… an admissions staff… a complete medical history… a billing agent… and all the other rigmarole of an emergency room to treat my wife’s cut finger. Any decently trained nurse could have done exactly what the doctor did.

The padding was obvious: The hospital charged us $374 from “central supply” (that must have been the band-aid they put on my wife’s finger), $117 for “pharmacy injectables” (okay, I guess that sounds reasonable for a tetanus shot) and $1,168 for the emergency room itself.

Yet, doctors now routinely refer patients to emergency rooms because they no longer want to be bothered with such nuisances as cut fingers, especially on weekends. They are clueless about what the costs of such visits actually are. The very poor, naturally, don’t pay anything when they go… they are covered by Medicaid. But it is people like us, who have health insurance, who pay the $150 a minute for routine care.

What is needed is not so much Obama’s socialized medicine – turning the entire country into a gigantic HMO with six-month waiting lists, crowded hospitals and over-worked doctors and nurses – but simply intermediate facilities between a doctor’s office and a critical care emergency room.

Such clinics could provide levels of care from an ordinary nurse to a nurse practitioner to, in worst case situations, a full-fledged M.D. It would save ordinary people a ton of money… and might help solve the health care crisis.

Similar Posts:

None Found

Download 3 Free Sample Chapters of My Book, "Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth"

Download 3 Free Sample Chapters of My Book, "Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth," and discover why recent discoveries are actually supporting the Gospel versions of events to a surprising degree. This is NOT a typical book of Christian apologetics but draws upon the most recent findings of secular, often non-Christian experts at major universities all over the world.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Post navigation

YouTube Channel

What Others Say…

“The Dawn of Christianity is a fascinating look at the early days of the Jesus movement that became the church... a worthwhile journey with a capable guide that richly repays the reader.” – Darrell Bock, Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary

“The Dawn of Christianity will enlighten and delight those who love Jesus and maybe rile and more deeply engage those who oppose him... Absolutely worth reading more than once!”– Rev. Eamon Kelly, LC, Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

“This entertaining book, setting its scenes with plenty of local color, demonstrates just how far the modern skepticism about Jesus has overreached itself. Questions remain, but Robert Hutchinson reminds us that we do not need to be browbeaten by those who say that only negative answers are available.” – N.T. Wright, Ph.D., University of St. Andrews

“Robert Hutchinson’s Searching for Jesus provides a wonderful introduction to some of the issues and debates about the Jesus of history... a great place to begin learning about Jesus, the Gospels, and history.” – Michael Bird, PhD., Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

“Robert Hutchinson's Searching for Jesus reviews the evidence, the theories, and the proposals in an informed and engaging way. Students and veteran scholars alike will profit from reading this well written book.” – Craig A. Evans, PhD., Houston Baptist University

“For most of those involved in the modern 'search for the historic Jesus,' it was really a search to debunk the Biblical Jesus. But as Robert Hutchinson demonstrates in this charming book, their efforts were not up to that task -- the 'new' evidence turns out to be more compatible with the Biblical account.” – Rodney Stark, PhD., author of The Triumph of Christianity, Baylor University

“Searching for Jesus offers the reader a readable and accessible overview to the complex field of biblical studies, archaeology, and history related to the life of Jesus. Although I do not share many of the presuppositions or conclusions of Hutchinson, he does attempt to navigate the minefield of disputes, discoveries, and controversies in the field of Jesus studies and offers, particularly in his extensive notes, a useful introductory guide for general readers who wonder what is the latest in historical Jesus research.” – James D. Tabor, PhD., author of The Jesus Discovery

“Searching for Jesus manages to combine some of the latest (and often technical) scholarly research with a highly readable and accessible style—no mean feat! All of this is infused with relevant anecdotes which make the book a pleasure to read. Hutchinson’s book is an ideal for anyone wanting to discover the controversies surrounding the historical figure of Jesus and will hopefully make more people realize why this is such a fascinating area of research.” – James G. Crossley, PhD., author of Why Christianity Happened: A Sociohistorical Account of Christian Origins (26-50 CE)